Continuing the familial posts of thanks, this person certainly deserves her own post, uniquely and specifically for her. Our story starts about 15 years ago, but our connection precedes any story. There has never been a person that can drive me more crazy, and never a person that can offer better conversation. I may not have come from her womb, and I may not carry her genes, but I can guarantee that I did come from her heart and soul. I am certainly a product of this woman, I owe much of who I am to her.
Our story began before we had a clue (I guess that's how they always begin). But for me, our story started on the night that I scribbled in an old journal about a woman that I had met, and how I wished more than anything that someone like her could be my mother. This was my first lesson in the "Be careful what you wish for..." chapter. Not long after I made this wish, I found myself standing at her front door with a suitcase of issues (and clothes). Thus begins years of learning to push each others' buttons and learning how to "deal" with each other. Eventually, as I got older, we found common ground and truly developed a mother-daughter connection. Not to say that we did not face many bumps and arguments over the years, and not to say that I did not enjoy my secret eye-rolling just as much as before, but it became easier to trust than distrust, easier to love than to dislike, easier to accept than fight the fact that my Pop was no longer my own, but that I had to share him with two other girls. As the years went by, we became best friends. She became the person that I wanted to tell everything to and share everything with. We used to have routines and traditions: we would get coffee together, interpret each others' dreams, go Black Friday shopping like mad women, go to all of the chick flicks, eat Chinese food, and the list goes on and on. Even when I am so frustrated with her that I just want to scream, time has taught me that sometimes it is better to go to bed angry. As with everyone, we have had to overcome many hurdles, but no hurdle more difficult to jump over than one brought upon us this year. Once again, I had to accept the fact that my Pop was no longer MY Pop. Only this time, she learned this lesson with me. I think it's safe to say that it's been the most difficult year of either of our lives, but it's also safe to say that we will make it through this together. We will make new traditions. We will tell new stories. We will still go Black Friday shopping like mad women. But we will also remember old traditions, share old memories, and hold every moment with my Pop closest to our hearts. I think there is a lot to be said about a family that works together and fights to survive together, especially when the only thing holding the family together is love rather than blood. It also says a lot about a person that can literally take in someone else's child and develop a relationship with that child as if it were your own. I am so thankful to have her in my life, and so thankful for the things I have learned from her. I have learned from her grace, strength, resilience, (and also her control-freak-ness, stubbornness, the need to be right, etc..). I know that I carry much of my Pop with me, in the person that I am today, but I also know that I carry many parts of her around and always will.
So on Day 4 of giving thanks, I am thankful for the life that she worked so hard to provide for me.
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